I own a jacket that’s eerily similar to Tess’ in Open Roads. It’s a blue bomber with yellow and burnt orange accents, and it’s not the only thing that Tess and I have in common. As she leisurely explores her childhood bedroom in the first few minutes of the game, Tess comes across set pieces that ground her environment in the early 2000s. There’s a chunky black television set and scattered DVD cases, little bottles of bright nail polish, a black-and-white strip from a photo booth, newspapers remembering 9/11 and hunting for bigfoot, and a bright pink tube of sickly sweet lip balm.
Engadget readers like yourself are probably more tech savvy than the average person. That means you may get roped into helping older family members with email woes, new phone setups, or deciphering if a message is legit or a phishing scam. In my family, I’ve become my mother’s unofficial IT support hotline, which makes me wonder about older adults with adult kids who are short on time. Turns out there are a number of resources staffed with actual people who will calmly walk seniors through just about any tech trouble they may face.
Nowadays, there are already plenty of choices when it comes to pet trackers, and some can even monitor heart rate, but apparently none could detect atrial fibrillation (AFib) until now. At CES 2024 in Las Vegas, GPS tracker specialist Invoxia unveiled the Minitailz, the world's first pet tracker that can keep an eye out for early heart disease symptoms on your cats or dogs.
The technology industry loves to breathlessly sell you its latest and greatest and best-est new idea. Pitches have to be fast and aggressive because if you took more than a second to think about what they were selling, you might not reach for your wallet. As flashy as the products at CES 2024 in Las Vegas can be, they often have one fatal weakness. Which is to not have any sort of answer to the most important question of them all: “y tho?”
We always find some strange gadgets at CES. There's no way around it, with thousands of exhibitors peddling their wares, trying to find a market for things no one has dreamed up before. From startups to giants like Samsung, there are plenty of things that make us pause, chuckle, and shake our heads. Here's a few favorites from CES 2024. Keep in mind, weird doesn't necessarily mean bad. It just means weird.
Google has officially voiced support for Right to Repair (R2R) legislation. Specifically, the company supports Oregon’s SB 542, championed by State Senator Janeen Sollman (D). Although Google’s motives could be less about newfound altruism and more about shaping regulatory action that seems increasingly inevitable, “a win’s a win,” as they say in sports.
Since Sony Honda Mobility revealed its EV collaboration at last year’s CES, not much has changed externally. The Afeela EV does now have a LIDAR notch above the windshield, and there’s been some design refinements and tweaks, but for CES 2024, the company was trying to express exactly how all of Sony’s entertainment and sensor expertise would combine with Honda’s automotive know-how, and why we should care about its high-tech EV.
Look, we can all sit around debating wether it’s worth teaching a dog to play the piano, or if that’s even something they’re capable of doing. But it’s also too late since, here at CES 2024 in Las Vegas, a Hong Kong-based startup has actually developed a device to do that. Zoo Gears was at the show demonstrating TheButter, a four-key instrument with light-up pads your pup can “play.”
Urtopia has tried to separate its e-bike's from the pack with copious use of technology and this year the company has outdone itself.